Hind Elhinnawy

I came to academia after an excruciating journey of gender-based activism in Egypt, founded on a painful personal story that has become public. I fought and won every single battle and marked a legal precedent that subsequently resulted in the reformation of personal status laws in Egypt. Yet, as a result of daring to speak against Shari’a, I was labelled “western”, “infidel”, “loose”, “reckless” and sometimes “anti-Muslim”, by colleagues, neighbours, the public as well as my own extended family; the impact of these personal experiences was so profound. I discovered the relationship between the liberation of women and the liberation of a country from a corrupt regime and a rising Islamist ideology; this was precisely what brought me to academia.

 

Fighting for change became a matter of life or death to me that I abandoned my former career as an interior architect and devoted my life to fighting gender-based violence in all its forms. I pursued post-graduate studies to understand and make sense of my lived experiences. I registered at the American University in Cairo for a master’s degree in gender and women’s studies. I volunteered for several NGOs, attended conferences around the Middle East, wrote blogs and opinion articles, participated in televised debates and became a serious and recognised active challenger of women’s status in Muslim countries. I vowed to continue the battle, and never stop fighting gender-based violence.

 

In 2016, I moved to the UK to pursue my PhD in gender and social policy. Ultimately, what I really wanted was to write, because “writing is a political act, a way of reclaiming power” (Behl, 2019, p. 88) and finding my own voice!